City charter's reform an important yawner

Maybe this should have been a tip-off: Officials at Arbor Hill Elementary School weren't even expecting the Albany Charter Revision Commission when members showed up to host a public hearing at the city school on a recent Thursday night.

If the school was caught unawares, what would be the likelihood of anyone from the public attending the hearing?

Actually, four people did show: Dan Potter, president of the Capital District Association of Rental Property Owners, and a trio of city residents who had attended the previous night's hearing at The College of Saint Rose.

But where were the leaders of the minority community? It was the second round of hearings conducted by the commission--two in the Pine Hills neighborhood and now two in Arbor Hill--prior to releasing a preliminary draft of its work in January, and one issue still unresolved is whether the city charter ought to specify a Common Council smaller than it currently exists.

That might impact Albany's so-called "majority minority" wards, four areas of mainly minority populations drawn in 1993 to reflect U.S. Census changes and to keep the city in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1964. The redistricting plan was controversial at the time because the desired outcome--minority populations represented by minority lawmakers in North Albany, Arbor Hill, West Hill and the South End--wasn't guaranteed.

But now, as the Charter Revision Commission works to update an outline of city government that dates to the Dongan Charter of 1686, the idea of a smaller Common Council has surfaced.

Proponents, such as Potter and the Rental Property Owners, see Albany as having too many part-time lawmakers for its 100,000-plus population. Larger upstate cities have fewer than Albany's 15, they say, expecting to save money if the number of aldermen earning $16,844 annually were reduced to, say, 11. But opponents counter that fewer wards mean more residents for each alderman to represent, threatening an Albany tradition of constituent services--calling a lawmaker to get a pothole filled, for example--that no one wants to tamper with.

Helen Desfosses, though, sees a larger issue in lawmakers staying close to their neighborhoods: minority representation.

"We have to make sure there's as large a number of minority representatives on the council as possible," said Desfosses, president-elect of the Common Council, who describes herself as "very concerned" about the ramifications of a smaller council on the majority-minority wards.

In reducing the number of aldermen and redrawing ward lines, "a lot of minority neighborhoods will be swamped by large white [wards]," she said, noting how difficult historically it has been for minority candidates to be elected in such districts.

She recalled a recent talk to the North Albany Business Association where charter reform was a topic. Members of the group did not want to see the number of wards reduced because "they wanted more representation of their needs as North Albany business owners," she said, a concern as easily translated to the social needs common in minority wards.

The size of the council is just one of a handful of loaded issues facing the charter commission; on the tamer side is the idea of giving aldermen greater say on the city's budget.

Indeed, the commission owes its formation to the Common Council feeling its oats this decade. That independence clashed with charter reality in 1995, however, when aldermen tried to vote down Mayor Jerry Jennings' budget but learned they were powerless to do so. Now the commission is looking at letting the council not only add to the mayor's budget, but also allowing an easier override of any veto of the changes.

How the more controversial topics shake out will be determined in part by public input. (And the electorate will have the last word on charter reform at the polls next November.) Turnout at the public hearings has been lackluster, though: about 100 total at the two Pine Hills meetings and fewer than 15 in Arbor Hill.

However, some hold out hope that interest will increase once a preliminary draft of the charter is released next month. And Desfosses warns against reading too much into the numbers at the Arbor Hill sessions, saying aldermen and community leaders from the majority-minority wards "have other avenues to make their feelings known."